Fitness Test - Getting there

We are into the second week of training. Still going very easy. Very very easy actually. So the first week I went up to 10hours of training, to reintroduce proper movement to the body after the carnage of August. Yes in august, I was totally messed up. I had no car, no washing machine, no fridge, doing 40 to 45 hours work weeks, with 2 hours of bike commute each day. Leaving home at 7h45 am and arriving back at 9pm. Food was also sub optimal, as I had to rely on fast food. That is not good for you. No, I did not go that deep of french fries and burgers. However, I ate tons of pasta, bread, cous cous and very little fruits, meat, eggs, veggies. Still was of course losing weight. I was focusing on my life and well being, like handling the dealing with the house selling agency,  completing the documents necessary to leave work, get stuff sold and try to maintain a solid back. Due to all this stress, finally the AC got to me and got really sick. Fever every day for 10 days. I could have actually get on to medical leave for the final stages of the work, but I just said: EFFF-it !!! and toughed it out. 

It took me around 7 days to feel better and now after 14 days I still have residual sickness. I ran the race yesterday, but my sinus and lungs stopped bleeding just 3 days before.

Week 1


So week 1. Around 38km of running and 44km all together with walking. 10,5 hours of time spent training, including all, like foam rolling, yoga, strength, technique, walking, running and so on. 1200m of total elevation gain. 

Week 2

So Week 2. I doubled up training load. Though simply by putting in 3 days of hiking. Once a Zone 0 walk with my daughter. 5 years old ! We walked 11km with 350m of gain. Than 2 days with the wife doing around 10-11km each time with 500m of elevation gain. So actually the first hike with my wife was an off trail adventure in very slippery, steep and tough conditions. I used a hiking boot that I have not used for at least 2 years. My calves got extremely sore at the origine. Really got over worked. Interesting. A 4 hours zone 0 to zone 1 hike can be a training too ! Then we went for the second hike, I used running shoes as the terrain was a bit more hikable. Though she was still stressed about meeting a bear. Normally there is non, but there are some sightings time to time.  

So after this three days, just Firday night she told me that she found an event near by. Like 5 minutes drive. A 19km trail run event with 1000m of elevation gain. Free run. You could call a fat ass run. Though not that fat ass. I ran with nothing, just phone, space blanket, food and water.
Despite the zero hours of intensity in the last couple of months, I felt surprisingly fine. Probably due to the fact, that despite the sickness, I sleep like a baby every single day. I also am relaxing a bit more and breathing the freshest air in France and one of the freshest in Europe. Also the temperatures are extremely low here. No heating up and getting smoked and dehydrated at every run. I always knew, but the Cote d'Azur is a horrible place for a sportif person. It is way worse then just not ideal. The air quality, the pollution, the noise, how humans are stressed out, everything about it is just not great for humans in general.

I started out this run at a calm pace, then after 10 minutes I started running hard. I did the 1000m of gain on that first 10km section in around 1h20, what is not so bad at all. I wanted to run the race under 2h. Unfortunately the terrain was very slippery, I also had to deal with mountain bikes, I am still out of shape, and also my quads did not hold the downhill. They got quite blasted. I still managed 2h10minutes. I took 2 gels and ate some yellow melons at an aid station. Of course I knew it is a short race, but if you gave me 30 min more to run, I would have had turned hypoglycaemic. I just did exactly what I needed to do to bring it home. I arrived first, but as it was a simple family event, there is no placing, no podium, no timing. On Strava I also hid the map as we traversed many private sectors. It was a very pleasant and enjoyable event with tons of mountain bikers. 

Finished the week off with 20hours of total training. 42km run / 85km total on foot. 1993m of total elevation gain. Basically nearly doubled the last weeks perf. I don't measure anymore, ever training load and fatigue by run distance. Training is measured in time and load is measured by how I feel. Simple as it is !!! Time for recover now. Couple of days of easy walking and hiking. 


Dorogi Levente

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